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Which of the following, if true, most logically completes [#permalink]
18 Jun 2007, 12:21

00:00

A

B

C

D

E

Difficulty:

(N/A)

Question Stats:

76%(02:01) correct
24%(02:12) wrong based on 43 sessions

Which of the following, if true, most logically completes the passage?

A recent poll found that over 80 percent of the residents of Nalmed Province favored a massive expansion of the commuter rail system as a means of significantly easing congestion on the province’s highways and were willing to help pay for the expansion through an increase in their taxes. Nevertheless, the poll results indicate that expansion of the rail system, if successfully completed, would be unlikely to achieve its goal of easing congestion, because _______.

A. most people in favor of expanding the rail system reported less congestion during their highway commute as the primary benefit they would experience
B. of the less than 20 percent of residents not counted as favoring the expansion, about half claimed to have no opinion one way or the other
C. the twice-daily periods of peak congestion caused by people commuting in cars have grown from about an hour each to almost two and a half hours each in the past 20 years
D. expanding the commuter rail system will require the construction of dozens of miles of new railbed
E. the proposed expansion to the commuter rail system will make it possible for some people who both live and work at suburban locations to commute by rail

Which of the following, if true, most logically completes the passage?

A recent poll found that over 80 percent of the residents of Nalmed Province favored a massive expansion of the commuter rail system as a means of significantly easing congestion on the province’s highways and were willing to help pay for the expansion through an increase in their taxes. Nevertheless, the poll results indicate that expansion of the rail system, if successfully completed, would be unlikely to achieve its goal of easing congestion, because _______.

A. most people in favor of expanding the rail system reported less congestion during their highway commute as the primary benefit they would experience B. of the less than 20 percent of residents not counted as favoring the expansion, about half claimed to have no opinion one way or the other C. the twice-daily periods of peak congestion caused by people commuting in cars have grown from about an hour each to almost two and a half hours each in the past 20 years D. expanding the commuter rail system will require the construction of dozens of miles of new railbed E. the proposed expansion to the commuter rail system will make it possible for some people who both live and work at suburban locations to commute by rail

Original Passage:
- 80% of residents favor massive expansion of commuter rail system
- 80% of residents favor the expansion to reduce congestion on highways
- 80% of residents are willing to pay increased taxes to pay for the expansion

I see A,C and E as strengthening the argument for the commuter rail. B seems to refer to half of the 20% who didn't support it--and that appears to be out of scope.

To me, D is the only answer that makes sense. Can someone help clarify?

I vote A: residents are only supporting the measure because they expect EVERYONE ELSE BUT THEMSELVES to migrate from driving to rail while they maintain no intention of doing so too. thus a possible outcome may be that only a marginal amount of people use the new system while everyone else continues to grapple with bad traffic.

Which of the following, if true, most logically completes the passage?

A recent poll found that over 80 percent of the residents of Nalmed Province favored a massive expansion of the commuter rail system as a means of significantly easing congestion on the province’s highways and were willing to help pay for the expansion through an increase in their taxes. Nevertheless, the poll results indicate that expansion of the rail system, if successfully completed, would be unlikely to achieve its goal of easing congestion, because _______.

A. most people in favor of expanding the rail system reported less congestion during their highway commute as the primary benefit they would experienceB. of the less than 20 percent of residents not counted as favoring the expansion, about half claimed to have no opinion one way or the otherC. the twice-daily periods of peak congestion caused by people commuting in cars have grown from about an hour each to almost two and a half hours each in the past 20 yearsD. expanding the commuter rail system will require the construction of dozens of miles of new railbedE. the proposed expansion to the commuter rail system will make it possible for some people who both live and work at suburban locations to commute by rail

We are looking for a reason why the congestion will not be lessened. If expanding the rail system requires the construction of dozens of miles of railbed, then this construction will create additional congestion for commuters during the time of its construction.

The rest of the answer choices do not provide sufficient explanations for why lessening congestion is unlikely if the rail system is constructed.

I vote A: residents are only supporting the measure because they expect EVERYONE ELSE BUT THEMSELVES to migrate from driving to rail while they maintain no intention of doing so too. thus a possible outcome may be that only a marginal amount of people use the new system while everyone else continues to grapple with bad traffic.

Re: Which of the following, if true, most logically completes [#permalink]
04 Jan 2013, 04:51

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JAE WOO wrote:

Which of the following, if true, most logically completes the passage?

A recent poll found that over 80 percent of the residents of Nalmed Province favored a massive expansion of the commuter rail system as a means of significantly easing congestion on the province’s highways and were willing to help pay for the expansion through an increase in their taxes. Nevertheless, the poll results indicate that expansion of the rail system, if successfully completed, would be unlikely to achieve its goal of easing congestion, because _______.

A. most people in favor of expanding the rail system reported less congestion during their highway commute as the primary benefit they would experienceB. of the less than 20 percent of residents not counted as favoring the expansion, about half claimed to have no opinion one way or the otherC. the twice-daily periods of peak congestion caused by people commuting in cars have grown from about an hour each to almost two and a half hours each in the past 20 yearsD. expanding the commuter rail system will require the construction of dozens of miles of new railbedE. the proposed expansion to the commuter rail system will make it possible for some people who both live and work at suburban locations to commute by rail

Hi,

Let's first understand the passage:

80% residents favored massive expansion of rail system and were willing to pay through increased taxes.

Now, we need to think: why would this massive expansion not achieve its goal of easing congestion?

Before moving onto the option statements, let's try to prethink:1. Because the number of new people who would start using highways would be greater than the number of people who would shift from highways to rail system2. There are some disadvantages associated with rail travel, e.g. stations are not located conveniently, which would make people continue to use highways only

Or anything which suggests that the traffic on the highway is not going to decrease

Now, let's go through the options:

A. most people in favor of expanding the rail system reported less congestion during their highway commute as the primary benefit they would experience - These people are concerned about less congestion on highways. Thus, these people (which form majority) intend to continue to use highways. Thus, this option suggests that the congestion might not decrease much. Let's keep this option aside. It could be the answer.B. of the less than 20 percent of residents not counted as favoring the expansion, about half claimed to have no opinion one way or the other - This option is talking only about 10% of the people and that too about their opinion on expansion, not whether they will continue to use highways or not. Thus, this option can be eliminated.C. the twice-daily periods of peak congestion caused by people commuting in cars have grown from about an hour each to almost two and a half hours each in the past 20 years - So, basically this says that the traffic has increased in the last 20 years. But if people start using rail network after its massive expansion, the traffic is epected to come down and congestion should ease. Thus, given option doesn't provide a reason for congestion to continue in the face of rail expansion.D. expanding the commuter rail system will require the construction of dozens of miles of new railbed - so, this is part of expansion. Since this is part of expansion, funds should be available for this also. How does this affect congestion on highways? It tries to suggest that expansion may not actually take place because it would require construction of miles of roadbed. But the question stem specifically states that "rail expansion, if successfully completed,...". SO, this option statement is not valid and does not provide a reason for continued congestion.E. the proposed expansion to the commuter rail system will make it possible for some people who both live and work at suburban locations to commute by rail - This should ease congestion. Just the opposite of what we are looking for.

So, after going through the options, we see that only option A is the choice which provides a reason for continued congestion and thus, this is the correct answer.

Re: Which of the following, if true, most logically completes [#permalink]
04 Jan 2013, 19:25

JAE WOO wrote:

Which of the following, if true, most logically completes the passage?

A recent poll found that over 80 percent of the residents of Nalmed Province favored a massive expansion of the commuter rail system as a means of significantly easing congestion on the province’s highways and were willing to help pay for the expansion through an increase in their taxes. Nevertheless, the poll results indicate that expansion of the rail system, if successfully completed, would be unlikely to achieve its goal of easing congestion, because _______.

A. most people in favor of expanding the rail system reported less congestion during their highway commute as the primary benefit they would experienceB. of the less than 20 percent of residents not counted as favoring the expansion, about half claimed to have no opinion one way or the otherC. the twice-daily periods of peak congestion caused by people commuting in cars have grown from about an hour each to almost two and a half hours each in the past 20 yearsD. expanding the commuter rail system will require the construction of dozens of miles of new railbedE. the proposed expansion to the commuter rail system will make it possible for some people who both live and work at suburban locations to commute by rail

Adding to the explanations already given, let me say that the question talks about poll results and hence we are looking for opinions of the people in the poll rather than facts. So such choices are most likely to be right. If we look at the choices we see C, D and may be E are not really opinions, only A and B are. So we can spend more time on them. We can immediately eliminate B because the numbers given are not significant enough to affect the achievement of the goal.

So if you are pressed for time , you should go for A. Now the reason why A is the correct answer is that as explained in some of the previous posts if the majority of the people think that the major benefit of the expansion is that they can continue using the highway then the goal of easing congestion on the highway cannot be achieved by the expansion of the rail system. _________________

Re: Which of the following, if true, most logically completes [#permalink]
10 Apr 2014, 03:33

egmat wrote:

JAE WOO wrote:

Which of the following, if true, most logically completes the passage?

A recent poll found that over 80 percent of the residents of Nalmed Province favored a massive expansion of the commuter rail system as a means of significantly easing congestion on the province’s highways and were willing to help pay for the expansion through an increase in their taxes. Nevertheless, the poll results indicate that expansion of the rail system, if successfully completed, would be unlikely to achieve its goal of easing congestion, because _______.

A. most people in favor of expanding the rail system reported less congestion during their highway commute as the primary benefit they would experienceB. of the less than 20 percent of residents not counted as favoring the expansion, about half claimed to have no opinion one way or the otherC. the twice-daily periods of peak congestion caused by people commuting in cars have grown from about an hour each to almost two and a half hours each in the past 20 yearsD. expanding the commuter rail system will require the construction of dozens of miles of new railbedE. the proposed expansion to the commuter rail system will make it possible for some people who both live and work at suburban locations to commute by rail

Hi,

Let's first understand the passage:

80% residents favored massive expansion of rail system and were willing to pay through increased taxes.

Now, we need to think: why would this massive expansion not achieve its goal of easing congestion?

Before moving onto the option statements, let's try to prethink:1. Because the number of new people who would start using highways would be greater than the number of people who would shift from highways to rail system2. There are some disadvantages associated with rail travel, e.g. stations are not located conveniently, which would make people continue to use highways only

Or anything which suggests that the traffic on the highway is not going to decrease

Now, let's go through the options:

A. most people in favor of expanding the rail system reported less congestion during their highway commute as the primary benefit they would experience - These people are concerned about less congestion on highways. Thus, these people (which form majority) intend to continue to use highways. Thus, this option suggests that the congestion might not decrease much. Let's keep this option aside. It could be the answer.B. of the less than 20 percent of residents not counted as favoring the expansion, about half claimed to have no opinion one way or the other - This option is talking only about 10% of the people and that too about their opinion on expansion, not whether they will continue to use highways or not. Thus, this option can be eliminated.C. the twice-daily periods of peak congestion caused by people commuting in cars have grown from about an hour each to almost two and a half hours each in the past 20 years - So, basically this says that the traffic has increased in the last 20 years. But if people start using rail network after its massive expansion, the traffic is epected to come down and congestion should ease. Thus, given option doesn't provide a reason for congestion to continue in the face of rail expansion.D. expanding the commuter rail system will require the construction of dozens of miles of new railbed - so, this is part of expansion. Since this is part of expansion, funds should be available for this also. How does this affect congestion on highways? It tries to suggest that expansion may not actually take place because it would require construction of miles of roadbed. But the question stem specifically states that "rail expansion, if successfully completed,...". SO, this option statement is not valid and does not provide a reason for continued congestion.E. the proposed expansion to the commuter rail system will make it possible for some people who both live and work at suburban locations to commute by rail - This should ease congestion. Just the opposite of what we are looking for.

So, after going through the options, we see that only option A is the choice which provides a reason for continued congestion and thus, this is the correct answer.

Hi,I have a doubt regarding option (a). I am not satisfied with the explanation that if people reported less congestion then they will continue to use highways. In the option it is written that, most people in favor of expanding the rail system reported less congestion during their highway commute as the primary benefit they would experience, i.e. people reported this when they were using highways. Nowhere in this statement, the option talks about the intention to continue using highways as a primary source of commute.Though, I agree that no other option is helping much in the question, but could you please explain in little detail about the explanation.Also, are such questions good enough to come in the GMAT..? Thanks in advance.

Re: Which of the following, if true, most logically completes [#permalink]
14 Apr 2014, 08:23

Expert's post

Sukant2010 wrote:

Hi,I have a doubt regarding option (a). I am not satisfied with the explanation that if people reported less congestion then they will continue to use highways. In the option it is written that, most people in favor of expanding the rail system reported less congestion during their highway commute as the primary benefit they would experience, i.e. people reported this when they were using highways. Nowhere in this statement, the option talks about the intention to continue using highways as a primary source of commute.Though, I agree that no other option is helping much in the question, but could you please explain in little detail about the explanation.Also, are such questions good enough to come in the GMAT..? Thanks in advance.

Hi Sukant,

First of all, this is an official questions and therefore, would have probably appeared in the actual GMAT exams of some test takers. Also, your job in most GMAT CR questions is to find the best among the "five given option statement", not really the best among "ALL possible".

Now, before I explain again why option A is correct, can you please tell me the meaning of option A in your words?

Re: Which of the following, if true, most logically completes [#permalink]
31 Oct 2014, 09:30

I found it as a tricky question. You need to find best of all.

Prethinking : - If after the rail expansion somehow people are not able to use it then it will unlikely to remove the congestion.

A) Most people in favor of expanding the rail system reported less congestion during their highway commute as the primary benefit they would experience.

Most people who favor the expansion of rail system thought that once rail system is developed then there will be less congestion on road so they will still be travelling by road. So most of the people will again be on the road so weakens the argument.

B) Of the less than 20 percent of residents not counted as favoring the expansion, about half claimed to have no opinion one way or the other.

Irrelevant. They are anyway minority

C) The twice-daily periods of peak congestion caused by people commuting in cars have grown from about an hour each to almost two and a half hours each in the past 20 years.

This kind of strengthen the argument. If congestion has grown more then may be rail system expansion can ease it.

D) Expanding the commuter rail system will require the construction of dozens of miles of new railbed.

Irrelevant

E) The proposed expansion to the commuter rail system will make it possible for some people who both live and work at suburban locations to commute by rail.

This kind of strengthen the argument. These people will be coming to city and going everyday so if expansion can take these people out then it can ease the congestion.

So Answer is A

egmat wrote:

Sukant2010 wrote:

Hi,I have a doubt regarding option (a). I am not satisfied with the explanation that if people reported less congestion then they will continue to use highways. In the option it is written that, most people in favor of expanding the rail system reported less congestion during their highway commute as the primary benefit they would experience, i.e. people reported this when they were using highways. Nowhere in this statement, the option talks about the intention to continue using highways as a primary source of commute.Though, I agree that no other option is helping much in the question, but could you please explain in little detail about the explanation.Also, are such questions good enough to come in the GMAT..? Thanks in advance.

Hi Sukant,

First of all, this is an official questions and therefore, would have probably appeared in the actual GMAT exams of some test takers. Also, your job in most GMAT CR questions is to find the best among the "five given option statement", not really the best among "ALL possible".

Now, before I explain again why option A is correct, can you please tell me the meaning of option A in your words?

Thanks,Chiranjeev

gmatclubot

Re: Which of the following, if true, most logically completes
[#permalink]
31 Oct 2014, 09:30